"White? What was that? Where did that come from? This is the fourth time you've given me a crystal and haven't explained it so I'd appreciate some answers," Jack says while walking towards the large old clunky yet powerful looking soviet plane idling nearby with multiple sets of engines.

'Master, the crystal you just handled is a skill transference crystal. It can only be used by the Master and a few other conditions that aren't applicable yet, Master's situation was deemed critical and without simple resolution.'

"What was it? It felt like it did something to my eyes, like I have a new connection in my mind allowing me to direct energy towards it… It's almost like the game abilities have come out into the real world, I was already feeling strong but do I have extra abilities now?"

'Yes Master, it's an ability that is mastered once you learn it.'

"Great another ability, I already have so many to train…"

'Masters current abilities rely too much on weapons, if you do not have access to your weapons then you have exposed.'

"Yeah but I'm too weak, I'm not even stage 4 in the game, I haven't started the bone forging stage and out here… what power do I have? I'm just a normal person," Jack says while raising his voice, luckily it's covered by the roar of the idling engines nearby.

'Master has entered the next stage within the game, the energy which passed through your body was able to excavate the passageways so all Master needs to do is take medicine to solidify the foundation.'

"What really? Can we do that?"

'Master will need to consult with the Alchemist upon this units observation, items are not available in village or auction house currently.'

"Shit, alright, well that's something to plan for though. Awesome," Jack smiles as he reaches the stairway and looks up at the open door. No one has followed him yet he feels someone always watching him so he doesn't want to stand around and quickly runs up the stairway entering the giant soviet plane where he immediately spots a large man around a bunch of tightly strapped in crates. The plane itself is barren with not even a seat, the whole place is filled with cargo freight as far as the eye can see.

The large black haired man with a thick moustache turns around and looks at Jack for a moment, "Are you Jhack?"

"Yeah. Sergov?"

"Good, those assholes were telling me that you weren't permitted to come here. Did you sort them out?"

"Something like that," Jack says while scratching his neck.

"Good man, good job. Those assholes deserved it," the middle aged man says with a thick accent, "I have to do this checklist but forget it, I can do it later. We should leave before we overstay our welcome."

"They didn't seem too friendly to us landing, we should go if it's an option."

"Yes, we need to go as the border pass within the no fly zone will expire in 14 hours and it's cutting it close already. We are fueled up enough to reach Novosibirsk, after that… who knows," the man says while laughing and throwing the clipboard aside.

"What about the clouds?"

"What about them? They just increase the likelihood of me getting retirement so I can play the secret world all the time," the man says while approaching the nearby short steps leading into the cockpit.

"Alright, can I sleep?"

"There's a bed in the cockpit, you can sleep after take off. I'll need you to keep an eye on things as we head up."

"Alright, I've never done this but I'll give you a hand."

Jack follows after the middle-aged man with a thick accent, the wafting smell of alcohol is evident from him but Jack bites his tongue as they arrive to the seats that are in disarray with food and drinks all over the place with paperwork everywhere on the floor.

"Just knock everything on the ground," the man says while picking up a headset and flicking several switches.

Jack does that trying not to make much of a mess with the remnants of bottles and sandwiches, he sits down and waits silently as Sergov sorts through paperwork all over the ground and flipping switches as he does so.

"Are you alright?," Jack asks.

"Fine, they're just not permitting anyone to leave. They have armed the missile defense system while the defense force has units in the area actively patrolling."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's fine, don't worry here have a drink," Sergov says flipping a couple a switches causing the engines to roar into life. He fumbles about the control panels for two shot glasses and pours out two unsteady drinks spilling some of it over the control panel.

Jack takes the glass quickly to ensure he doesn't spill any more, Sergov closes the bottle and brings the shot glass up, "Ok… uhh, cheer."

Sergov brings the drink forward, Jack clinks it with him wondering how he got into this situation. The two of them down the liquid in unison.

Jack places the glass back down while Sergov throws the cup on the ground, "Alright," the man says with a thick accent, "let's go."

The man pushes on a throttle lever causing the plane to move forward suddenly and quickly then slow down, Sergov is in control as he slows the plane down to turn down the taxiway.

"Keep an eye out for anyone on the ground, if you see any sort of glinting light then duck cause that's a scope of some kind," Sergov says while caressing the controls.

Jack looks out of the plane and spots nothing, it's too far away and too dark to see anything yet as he scans the horizon a particular spot gives him a sensation of being watched. If this were the game world he could try to sense who that is but in the real world, there's little option but to endure it when he recalls his new power, he focuses his mind recalling what happened during learning the ability.

A spark of lightning appears in the cockpit causing parts of the cockpit to become damaged, the engines roar into life as Sergov yells, "Jack, did you do something? Jack?," he yells but his voice is engulfed by the roaring engines.

Jack stares blankly at a spot on the ground where an arc of lightning appears, he only spots it briefly before the plane lurches toward breaking his eye contact disconnecting the power, he coughs a few times and responds, "Maybe but it's fine right?"

"No, it's not fine we're stuck on full throttle here, I might be able to fix it but we're going to run out of ground before I can even move. You cannot control a IL-78 right?"

"Nope."

"So… let's hope there's enough runway," Sergov says and concentrates on the ground before him. The plane rumbles across the rough ground and arrives on another taxiway that is mostly clear, the plane is always picking up speed. A mechanical noise is heard as the flaps move downward forcing the plane upward.

The runway ends quickly but the plane takes flight just before the end of it knocking over a fence as it glides lowly over the fields before pulling up hard as the engines struggles.

"Jack, brother," Sergov says.

"Yes?," Jack answers.

"Another shot please," Sergov says as he slams his fist on the control panel.

Jack pulls out the vodka pulls and finds another dirty glass laying about, he pours out two shots not wanting to miss this and passes the glass off to the pilot.

Sergov instantly downs the shot, Jack does the same sending the chills up his spine, "Ok. You can do this. Just hold the control stick steady, if that line goes up then push down…," Sergov says pointing to the level gauge.

Jack nods his head feeling the effects of alcohol, he takes the control stick before him as Sergov lets go.

"Got it?," Sergov asks while pulling up the control panel.

"N… ok…," Jack says as Sergov sets about to work repairing the control panel, the young man had no option but to take control of this giant aircraft suddenly while recovering from the usage of that previous skill.

Jack is quiet as the plane struggles to gain altitude, he has no idea what he's doing or what's going on yet somehow he's being tasked with controlling this soviet-era plane through the skies.

What feels like hours later but is probably minutes, the control panel flickers into life alongside several beeping alarms, Sergov emerges from the bottom of the control panel and begins to flip switches turning off the alarms, the plane feels like it's leveling out and gaining speed more easily when Sergov suddenly stops.

"Shit, hang on," Sergov pushes down on the control stick sending the plane down towards the ground nearly skimming it.

"Why?," Jack asks but his question doesn't need answering as the plane climbs up again and then dives down again, Jack clings onto his seat as all the items in the cockpit are tossed about.

JAck grabs a few items as the plane levels out and descends abruptly again, the beeping stops for a moment and starts again.

Sergov kicks the control panel causing the beeping to stop, "Ah good, solved."

"What is?," Jack asks but suddenly two objects pierce through the air above the cockpit causing his eyes to widen in disbelief as they then disappear into the distance exploding in a large fireball.

"Useless things. They'll scare idiots but not me."

Jack smiles as he feels like he's in a movie not quite thinking about the danger he truly is in, "Are we safe?"

"At our current rate, Yes so sleep if you would like Jack. You seem to be my lucky charm."

"Why?"

"I have never had to avoid such a missile before, my retirement may truly come early with you around."

Jack awkwardly smiles at being called a bad luck charm, "No problem, I don't need to sleep but I have some game stuff to handle."

"Ah game, the secret world is important. You must focus on that, I must show my father who is better and that's where we can show it," Sergov nods as he stabilises the plane.

"Yea, so where can I go?"

Sergov points in a direction then changes to the other side, "Over there should be good, I have to focus on this so you have to clean it up."

Jack looks in that direction where there's only a wall, "What?"

"Under the floor, look for the lever."

Jack grimaces his face, "Alright. I don't like not being able to see out."

"You can take my bed but I feel that it's not in a good state," Sergov says while looking towards the direction he originally pointed towards.

Jack looks over there where a bed wet from several bottles of undisclosed liquid has spilled on it, there's no way it's good, "Alright point taken," he walks over to the place where was pointed out as the plane shudders and jerks about in the air, he arrives by the window and pulls on a lever forcing the floor upwards revealing a chute to the underbelly that has a large padded room. He jumps down into the hatch landing on the tough yet somewhat soft padding. This room is confusing but he doesn't have time to ask anything a the hatch above closes leaving him alone.

"Well… I hope it's not an escape pod," Jack says while stretching out on the somewhat comfortable padding inside this strange pod that has a dim emergency light illumination.

"White."

'Master.'

"Will I be safe if I enter the internal space here?,"

'Master will be safe as Master can be, does Master wish to train?'

"Sure, I cannot sleep anyways."

Jack dives into his mind, leaning into his consciousness thread until he appears on the piece of land within this space. Practise seems to have made this process much easier, almost easier than it is within the game where he originally learnt everything.

A form of a young girl with black hair appears nearby, Jack looks at her for a moment waiting for her to open her eyes and confirmed her identity, rainbow irises open up and peer back at Jack, she raises her skirt and curtsies, "Master."

"Why do you change form like that?"

"Master, my proper form can only come out within there," she says while pointing towards the tree leaving Jack confused.

"The tree?"

"No, the crystal placed within the crown of the tree," White says while pointing towards the top of the tree.

Jack squints his eyes but cannot see anything within it, "Why's that?," he asks while raising an eyebrow at the young woman.

"It's complicated to explain but Master simply needs to wait, I suggest Master does not wait to learn Bridging-the-Stars."

"I still don't understand how taught me that, why did you wait?"

"Master has only just acquired this new element."

"Acquired? Is it like the other elements? I already have my plate full with learning the fire skills and cultivating with them in game… which is taking far too long anyways, do I have to learn lightning on top of that?"

"Master's understanding of the Yang-Yin Dragon-Phoenix Myriad Arts is… lacking."

"Whys that?," Jack says angrily as though his judgement is being questioned.

"The arts are able to handle any element and any technique, it truly is the most mystical of cultivation arts yet it also doesn't behave like the other cultivation arts, Master often cultivates by sending energy through the channels that run through your body, the simple qi veins."

"Yes, isn't that normal? I don't have heavenly veins and I don't have xiantian veins."

"No Master, you are confused because you have been… blessed with extraordinary spiritual awareness which you weren't aware of before it was further enhanced with divine sense."

"What does that mean?"

"You have been forcing your body to cultivate like an immortal when you don't have the ability to take advantage of their cultivating methods."

"Why didn't you say something sooner then? I thought that was how every cultivates."

"Master, they do cultivate like that. It is just performed differently to Master, they have innate control of their internal energies. Your method has incredible advantages for someone at your earlier stages but now that you have reached the peak of the next step, you must prepare properly."

"It's just not really helping me get stronger?,"

"You are, just much slower than it could be."

"How do I sort that out?"

"You need to train your spiritual awareness to take control of each individual energy and join them together so that your heavenly meridians and veins will by the same type."

"This all sounds confusing, I thought I understood it before."

"Master's cultivation is… unique, this internal space has introduced an irregularity. Master did not discover the formless qi provided by the land like this until much later in life."

"Yeah… what about that? What's that giant form about? It feels like it comes from this space?," Jack says while looking about as if trying to sense something.

"This unit can only explain that as the primal force provided by the developing land, perhaps Master has found a new function for the soiled heaven's devouring dirt."

"Is the force mine?,"

"Master, this whole space is yours."

"Yeah... this space is mine…," Jack says as though he's entranced, a rainbow flash occurs over his iris.

"Master needs to get stronger to protect this space, the tribulation lightning and clouds will shield the space from detection for some time but it cannot be replenished without an external source."

"Ah damn, so how do we get more?"

"Master can not until we reach the Centre, this space has been shut off to prepare us for movement."

"I see, well," Jack says while looking around at the lightning that seems millions of km away covering all directions, "doesn't seem like it'll run out any time soon."

"This unit only wants Master to get stronger," White says with smiling her face innocently.

Jack returns the smile, "Ok. So Bridging-the-Stars, what is it?"

"It's the ocular ability of a particular nether race where they are able to direct a reverse flow of energy where their eyes perceive…

White spends the next several minutes explaining the ability to Jack, an eye ability where the user simply needs to look at where they want to target and the energy will appear there including the ability to teleport yourself, only if you have a nascent soul though. Simply look at a spot and some lightning will appear there if it can. There are lots of restrictions and it can be negated by a qi barrier making it useless against anyone stronger than himself, but it's not absolute.

"So any power?," Jack asks.

"Yes Master, any power that you have can be delivered like that."

"Well I can't wait to try it out in the game world then."

"Practise first Master, once you reach minor Mastery in Bridging-the-Stars then you can reach 2% completion in Skyfall."

Jack nods his head, "Ok," he draws energy out of his mind creating a strange loop like effect as he summons the storm clouds alongside his glowing eye, the clouds far in the distance roil about as if they're angry at something while clouds appear overhead quickly blocking the veins of the space surrounding this tiny piece of land.

*RUMBLE*

The clouds thunder overhead when a *SNAP* is heard, Jack looks over and spots the world tree going through another death cycle, "How many is that?," he asks White.

"289, if it can reach 500 it will be good, if it can reach 1000 it will be legendary."

"If it can reach higher?," Jack asks looking towards the young woman with rainbow iris, his own glowing with a fuzzy purplish line.

"Sylver the youngest elven mother star's world tree reached 4392 cycles, it is said to be the strongest ever since the originator mother tree."

Jack nods, "Well let's hope."

White returns the nod, "Yes Master, please continue."

Jack continues to practise the skills unaware of what's going on outside as Sergov flies through obstacles such as missile nets and other interception craft arriving into safe airspace and continue the journey towards Moscow with a single stop.

———

Jack stretches his body as he looks around the dark space, he actually feels relaxed despite spending the last several hours practising intensely essentially inside his mind.

The dim emergency light shows the way up, Jack reaches for the hatch lever when the plane suddenly jerks downward, he pushes open the lever as a shout comes out.

"You're alive, I thought you were going to sleep through everything," a thick russian accent says.

"What do you mean?," Jack asks as he rubs his eyes as he looks at Sergov who has a red face and tired expression.

"The trip has been… challenging, especially refueling but good news is that we're coming up to Moscow."

"How far?"

"3 hours, about 1100 kilometres," the russian man says while taking a sip of drink, "we should be safe this close to the capital but you never know."

"Know what?"

"Who has taken control of an anti-air battery… drunken idiots."

"Right, is the country safe otherwise?"

"Da, very. If you're rich and can pay the bribe."

"Right. Not like my country, is it always cloudy?"

"Not like this, these clouds are weird as though they're following us yet as far as anyone can tell they're natural systems. We're at the right height to avoid most of it at 4,500m."

"Weird," Jack says while getting out of the hatch and looking through the window, the sky is dark while the ground has countless lights everywhere signifying the life that lives below not that much different to his own country.

"It's kind of strange but not very, I have experienced much crazier over the arctic circle… Most places are worse than this, kind of why everyone is going into the secret world online these days," the russian man says while adjusting the controls.

Jack sits down in the chair watching the crackle of lightning in the distance, it seems strangely familiar as he looks at it, "Well that's good, people should focus on it."

"It's much better than out here, I can meet my beloved Olivia everyday instead of only every couple of months."

"They have you flying that much?"

"Da," Sergov says while taking another sip of drink.

Jack lets the man enjoy the quiet drink while his mind wanders back to the game after being reminded of it, the village and everyone there…, he places his fingers on his forehead and thinks about entering the game knowing that it wouldn't work but trying in spite of that.

His body begins to feel like it's floating as his vision turns black, he can no longer feel anything and is left in a semi-limbo state but due to experience Jack doesn't panic, he allows these feelings to wash over him for a moment.

He is stunned silent when his vision returns.